Hiding virus infection could be punished in Shanghai

Shanghai legislators issued a decision on Friday that people who hide their infection of the novel coronavirus, their travel itinerary to epidemic areas, contact history with patients or suspected cases of the novel coronavirus, as well as run away from medical observations, could be punished by listing them as blacklisted in the public credit information system.

Once in the list, they would receive punishment, the Shanghai People's Congress said on its website.

The decision also includes a slew of other measures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus which has infected 269 people in Shanghai as of Thursday midnight. It was passed during a meeting of the standing committee of the municipal people's congress.

Ding Wei, head of the legal affairs council of the committee, told municipal news portal Shanghai Observer that the decision was made to support and authorize government's actions in response to the public health emergency.

It specified that the government can streamline procedures to quicken the allocation of resources and the construction projects for containing the epidemic, and can expropriate equipment, space, vehicles and supplies to fight the virus with compensation or return.